Female Prisoners Illegally Sterilized in California

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According to a recent audit, dozens of women in California prisons were sterilized without meeting the state requirements for consent to the procedure from 2005 to 2013. Out of 144 sterilizations performed on incarcerated women during that period, more than a quarter were done outside of the legally mandated consent rules.

The Center for Investigative Reporting's Corey G. Johnson, who first covered these sterilizations a year ago, writes, "Former inmates and prisoner advocates have claimed that prison medical staffers coerced the women, targeting those deemed likely to return to prison after they were released." Most of the inmates sterilized are women of color, and most of the women read below a high school level. Many of the surgeries were performed by the same man, Dr. James Heinrich, who previously told the Center of Investigative Reporting that sterilizations were cheap "compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children — as they procreated more."

Under California law, sterilization of inmates requires a few basic checks to prevent abuses: The patient must be 18; she must consent to the procedure at least 30 days before it but not more than 180 days, unless she waives that waiting period in writing or is in an emergency medical situation; the patient must be allowed a witness of her choosing when she consents to the procedure; once the patient signs the consent form, it must also be signed by the person who secured the patient's consent, an interpreter (if there was one), and a physician. By signing the form, the person who obtained the patient's consent attests that he or she believes the patient to be mentally competent and explained the permanent nature of sterilization, along with contraceptive alternatives. Then, the physician signs to certify that the patient once again received counseling about the procedure and understood her ability to revoke their consent; that the patient is mentally competent; and that she consented at least 30 days before receiving the procedure (if the patient waived the 30-day waiting period, she still must wait at least 72 hours between initially consenting and obtaining the operation).

In 39 cases, these procedures were not met. In 27 of them, the missing step was the physician's signature — which is supposed to serve as a final bulwark against coercion and abuse.

Compulsory sterilization in the U.S. gained popularity in the early 20th century as part of the eugenics movement; even the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state statute allowing for the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities. Across the country, though concentrated in the Deep South, "Mississippi appendectomies" left scores of black women sterilized without their consent. Through the 1970s, Puerto Rican women had their uteruses unnecessarily removed by future doctors practicing their skills. In California, tens of thousands of women were sterilized by the state, often coercively. Women who underwent state sterilization were disproportionately black and Latina.

In response to the findings of this latest audit in California, state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, who called for an investigation after the Center for Investigative Reporting's initial exposé, said he wanted all the sterilization cases investigated further. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, and the vice chairwoman of the California Legislative Women's Caucus, went a step further and proposed a bill that would outlaw the sterilization of inmates for birth control purposes, allowing the procedure only in medical emergencies or to remedy physical health problems. That bill was passed by the state senate in May and is now before the Assembly.